The Only Exception
by xStart.a.RIOTx
Summary: .."I know I swore I'd never fall in love back then...but how can I keep that promise with Ash around?" *ONE-SHOT* Please review!


**Me: Hi people!**

**Ash: Is it storytime?!**

**Me: Yes...**

**Ash: *grins* I LOVE STORYTIME!!! What's the story about this time?**

**Me: *smirks* You...and Dawn. ;)**

**Ash: ...I don't get it.**

**Me: I know, you're always so dense. xD**

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

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"Hey Dawn, are you ready to go? We're about to eat lunch!" a raven-haired boy called out.

A certain blunette looked at him and smiled. "Almost, I just need to finish a few things."

The boy smiled. "Okay, Brock and I will wait for you at the cafeteria?"

Dawn nodded. "Sure Ash," she beamed.

They waved each other good-bye. Ash Ketchum, a raven-haired seventeen year old boy who sought out to be the world's greatest Pokemon Master, left Dawn, a sixteen year old Pokemon Coordinator who wished to become a Top Coordinator, and walked out of the room in the Pokemon Center he, she, and a nineteen year old Pokemon breeder named Brock had slept in and headed off to the Pokemon Center's cafeteria to meet Brock there and get some lunch.

Dawn, on the other hand, was too busy fixing her bag.

Her clothes and the rest of her belongings were scattered about the soft, fleece sheets of her bed. She had made a mess while rummaging through her bag, looking for her pink scarf. "Stupid pink scarf," Dawn muttered to herself as she was stuffing all her things into her yellow bag. "Why did it have to be at the bottom of my bag?!"

As she continued to stuff all her belongings into her small backpack as quickly as she could, she came across a picture.

And once she looked at the picture, she froze in her tracks.

The photo was about the size of a postcard. It was old and wrinkly, and crinkled and ripped at the sides. The color was faded, but you could still make out who was in the picture. In the photo, there were three figures that were standing somewhere that looked somewhat like a beach. The sun shone above them, the clear blue waters were forming waves, and there was soft, grainy white sand everywhere around them. Water Pokemon were scattered about, playing around in the ocean. The three figures appeared to be a man, a woman, and a small child.

The small child looked to be six years old. Her sapphire blue eyes twinkled and her long midnight blue hair danced in the wind. She wore a pink sundress, and she was twirling around in it, amused by all the movement around her. And that little girl was _Dawn_. The woman looked just like the little girl. She had sapphire blue eyes and midnight blue hair as well, but her hair was shorter and tied into a ponytail. She appeared to be laughing, happy that the little girl was having so much fun.

She was really Dawn's mother. And the man, who was probably Dawn's father, was laughing as well. His arm was wrapped around the woman's waist, and he rested his head on the woman's head as they watched their daughter dance in the wind. He had piercing electric blue eyes, and shaggy black hair. He looked so happy, happy that his daughter was so lovely and happy that he had a beautiful wife.

But when Dawn looked at the man in the picture, she immediately became angry.

"Why do I even have a...a picture of that _traitor_?!" she yelled at herself as she boiled with anger. Her fingers trembled with anger as she gripped on the old crinkled photo. She continued to glare at the man in the photo, and then she finally ripped off the part of the picture with her father and threw it into the garbage can.

She then sighed and fell onto the mattress of her bed, holding the remains of the photo to her heart. She smiled a weak smile and laughed at herself. "I've forgotten about him again, haven't I?" she muttered to herself, glancing at the ripped picture in her hands. She laughed once again. "Well...it's better to forget about him than to remember all the pain he's made Mom and I go through..."

_When I was younger  
I saw my daddy cry  
And cursed at the wind  
He broke his own heart  
And I watched  
As he tried to reassemble it_

Dawn wasn't always angry at her father. In fact, when she was small, she thought he was the best father ever. He always played with her and made her feel safe. He made her smile all the time, and he was a _very _talented Pokemon trainer. And he and Dawn's mother also got along really well back then. He was always so sweet to Johanna, and such a romantic. Dawn remembered that he would bring a blue rose to her mother almost everyday. Mom would laugh and kiss the man on the cheek. And a six year old Dawn would come running to her parents, laughing as well and hugging her mother and father.

But slowly...everything started to fall apart.

When Dawn was seven years old, she could here yelling from her bedroom...yelling between her mother and father. There were arguments between them almost everyday. Even when they didn't say anything to each other, you could feel the tension in the air. They would glare at each other everytime they saw the other. They weren't the lovey-dovey couple they were before. Their relationship was broken...and Dawn never knew the reason as to why it started breaking, neither did Dawn's mother. Her father just started to change, he wasn't the loving man he used to be.

And eventually, Dawn's father _left_. He left when Dawn was nine years old. He just couldn't stay with Johanna anymore, and he never took the time to get close to Dawn, so he had no reason to stay with Johanna anymore...or at least that's what he thought. When he left Johanna and Dawn, he left them heartbroken; Johanna was left heartbroken because her husband had just left her, and she loved him so much...even though she didn't show it that much to him. And Dawn...she was heartbroken because she'd lost her father...the one who was supposed to help her up whenever she was down. The one who was supposed to guide her through life. The one who was supposed to lift her up.

_And my momma swore that  
She would never let herself forget  
And that was the day I promised  
I'd never sing of love  
If it does not exist_

Dawn thought it was a dream, a nightmare...but it really happened. Sure, Dawn and her mother cried over him for a while. But eventually, they've learned that there's no use crying over him, since they knew that he'd never come back. That was the last they've talked about him, and they swore not to talk about him anymore. Whenever Dawn's asked of her father, she would simply reply..."He's dead."

Yeah, that's how much she despised him.

Nobody knows where he is, and nobody's wants to know where he is...especially Dawn and her mother. They don't want anything to do with him anymore, because everyone knew that what he'd done was terrible. And because of what her father's done, Dawn promised herself that she'd never fall in love...because she didn't want to get hurt like her mother did, she didn't want to get her heart broken a _second _time.

And at that time when her father left, she'd thought love didn't exist...because of all the depression and melancholy in the air. But now...

"Dawn!" a voice called out, interrupting the blunette's thoughts.

Dawn jolted up into a sitting position, still holding the ripped photo to her heart. She turned her head to the door of the room, and glared at the boy standing at the doorway. "What?!" she snapped at him, annoyed.

The raven-haired boy continued to look at her with a worried, concerned expression. "Are you okay? I heard you shouting," he explained to her.

Dawn's features softened up, and she started to blush a light shade of pink. "Uh...it was nothing. I just lost my pink scarf..._again_," she lied. "I just can't seem to find it, nothing bad's happened. No need to worry, Ash!" She smiled a sweet smile towards the boy.

Ash tensed down and started to blush. He loved her smile. "Oh, okay," he breathed out. He smiled back at her. He became curious once he saw her holding a piece of old, crinkled paper to her heart. "What's that?" he asked her, pointing to the photo she was holding to her chest. He walked over to her bed and sat down right beside her. Dawn blushed, for he was sitting so close to her. She could feel the heat radiating from his body.

She held out the ripped photo and showed it to him. "Well, it's a picture of me and my mom when we were younger," the blunette explained to him. "It was the first time I've been to the beach."

Ash smiled an amused smile as he observed the young Dawn in the photo. She looked so happy, so pure, so beautiful. "Wow, you look like you must've been having a lot of fun there," he said to her.

Dawn smiled a weak smile. "..Yeah," she breathed out.

"But why's the picture ripped?"

Dawn froze. She didn't want Ash to know about her father... "Wait, shouldn't we be eating lunch now?" she asked Ash nervously, changing the topic.

Ash's dark brown eyes widened. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, getting up from the bed. He started to walk out the doorway...but then he froze in his tracks and walked back into the room and grinned. "Hey Dawn, I found your scarf," he told her.

Dawn smiled. "Oh really?" she asked, sarcasm hinted in her voice. She walked over to the raven-haired boy as he bent down near Dawn's bed and reached his arm out to grab Dawn's soft pink scarf from under the bed, out of the darkness and off the dusty floor. He brushed off the dirt and dust out of the scarf.

Ash grinned and nodded in reply. "Yeah," he breathed out. He walked over to her, and stopped right in front of her. There was only a mere few inches between them. Dawn blushed once again because of the closeness of their bodies.

Ash didn't see her blush and continued to stay in front of her. "Hold still," he told her as he started to put her pink scarf around her slender neck. He then fixed her hair after it was wrapped around her neck, brushing his fingers through her long silky midnight blue hair. The blunette laughed as he fixed her scarf on her.

"Thank you kind sir!" Dawn jokingly said as she curtsied, smiling an amused smile.

Ash chuckled and decided to play along. He bowed, and then grinned at her and looked into her sapphire blue eyes. "You're welcome, milady!" he replied, and then held his hand out. "Now, may I escort you to the cafeteria to get some lunch?"

Dawn laughed once again, and that was music to the raven-haired boy's ears. "Yes, yes you may!" she cheered as she put her hand into his. They smiled at each other, and then started to walk to the Pokemon Center's cafeteria, hand in hand.

And as they walked to the cafeteria, one thought continuously echoed through Dawn's mind.

_'I know that I swore I'd never fall in love back then because of what Dad did...but how can I keep that promise with Ash around?' _She laughed and shrugged off the thought, and just continued to enjoy her walk with Ash to the cafeteria.

_'I guess Ash is just the only exception to that promise I made.'_

_But darlin,  
You, are, the only exception  
You, are, the only exception  
You, are, the only exception  
You, are, the only exception _

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**Me: Sorry it was so short, and so horrible!**

**Ash: Are you kidding?! I LOVED IT!**

**Brock: That's only 'cause she made you look good in the story!**

**Ash: *blushes* Well...that is true.**

**Dawn: *laughs* You're so full of yourself sometimes, you know?!**

**Me: Well, please review! Just press the little button under this sentence! It only takes a minute! :D**


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